The Tragedy of the USS Juneau Sinking

On this day in history, the USS Juneau was sunk. However, the true tragedy lay not in the initial explosion, but in the repeated failures that cost the lives of many survivors. After the Juneau went down, other ships in the area, fearful of enemy submarines, departed without checking for survivors. Captain Hoover of the USS Helena failed to render aid, assuming that a B-17 flying overhead would signal if there were any survivors after the explosion. Captain Hoover also falsely assumed that after such and explosion no survivors would be found. Unfortunately, the B-17 crew did not make contact. When the B-17 returned, its crew reported seeing about 100 survivors in the water, but for reasons unknown, the intelligence officer did not prioritize the report, and it was merely added to the daily notes.

Captain Hoover eventually broke radio silence to report the sinking of the Juneau, but he never requested a search for survivors. When he arrived in port, he listed the ships that had survived, but made no mention of the Juneau. It wasn’t until November 16, when Admiral Halsey, furious upon learning the full extent of the failure, demanded action and search parties be sent out to locate the survivors. Of the original number of survivors only 10 were eventually rescued. The rest tragically succumbed to the harsh elements or were attacked by sharks.

The sinking of the Juneau was undeniably one of the tragedies of World War II, but the aftermath—the failure to properly search for and rescue survivors—stands as one of the greatest tragedies of the war. The negligence and delay in action that followed led to the needless loss of so many lives, making it not just a military failure, but a profound human tragedy.